Saginaw Bishop Joseph R. Cistone (right) personally greeted the guests as they arrived Friday, April 27, for the annual Bishop’s Charity Ball at the Horizons Conference Center in Saginaw. Mark Haney/Catholic Weekly
By Mark Haney
The Catholic Weekly
SAGINAW — From start to finish, the annual Bishop’s Charity Ball was about service.
From the silent auction that funneled the proceeds to various service agencies and projects, through a mealtime video about work being done for those in need through the diocese to the giving of the Bishop Murphy Award to Edna Kujawski of St. Agatha Parish in Gagetown, the theme on Friday, April 27, was all about service.
Even the parting gift — a small box of chocolates — bore a tag with a message from Matthew’s Gospel: “And the King will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me’” — was in keeping with the theme.
Lansing Bishop Earl Boyea addresses his fellow priests during his homily at the Chrism Mass on Holy Thursday, April 5, at St. Mary Cathedral.
By Mark Haney
The Catholic Times
LANSING — On the day when he gave each parish a copy of his first pastoral letter, “Go and Announce the Gospel of the Lord,” Bishop Earl Boyea got to speak of many issues addressed in the letter in a homily aimed at the priests of the Diocese of Lansing.
And yet the homily he gave at the Holy Thursday, April 5, Chrism Mass also spoke to the many lay leaders, pastoral administrators and parish representatives who fill St. Mary Cathedral for the service. (more…)
Mount Pleasant couple turns blog entries into a testament to love in the face of disease
By Mark Haney
The Catholic Weekly
MOUNT PLEASANT — Dan and Jennifer Digmann know well the cruel vagaries of life.
“I’m training to run an eight-mile race,” said Dan, former editor of The Catholic Weekly, “and my wife can’t walk. But that is just how Multiple Sclerosis affects everyone so differently.”
The Digmanns met because of their shared disease. Now they have written a book about their lives together. “Despite MS, to Spite MS” came out of a blog they started in February of 2009 and offers a personal glimpse into their lives together and with their shared disease. (more…)
Bishop Boyea’s first pastoral letter calls for a new effort at evangelization, year of prayer
By Mark Haney
The Catholic Times
LANSING — The numbers are a bit staggering: since 2000, a 32.8 percent drop in baptisms, a 44.4 percent fall in marriages and a 57.5 percent drop in Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults participation.
And yet the more sobering result is that from 2000-09, the Diocese of Lansing saw a 3.2 percent drop in parish population and a 16.4 percent drop in Mass attendance. That decline was in virtually every parish and every county. Only 20 of 90 parishes showed any increase and only 12 of them were increases of more than 50 people and only five had increases of more than 100 people.
That’s what, “Feed My Sheep,” a report written by the Task Force on Discipleship and Engagement made up of Deacon Daniel Foley of Christ the King Parish in Ann Arbor, Craig Pohl of Most Holy Trinity Parish in Fowler, Fr. John Byers of Immaculate heart Parish in Lansing, Sharon Falinski of Holy Spirit Parish in Hamburg and Patricia Nickerson of Cristo Rey Parish in Lansing, found. That report, in turn, along with one of the directions from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for every bishop to write a pastoral letter for the implementation of the Year of Faith, prompted Bishop Earl Boyea to write his first pastor letter, “Go and Announce the Gospel of the Lord.” (more…)
Gagetown speaker tells of those caught in modern day slavery
By Debbie Oglenski
The Catholic Weekly
GAGETOWN — Cherie Sammis has the facts, but her stories are far more compelling.
The vice president of mission integration at St. Mary’s of Michigan told of a young woman, professionally dressed in a tailored suit, who came up to Sammis after a presentation on human trafficking and said “You missed me for eight years.” The woman had been abducted from a rural community and was held for eight years as a sex slave. (more…)
By Sandra Burch
The Catholic Weekly
FREELAND — The purpose of music in the Mass is to help the people.
That was the message David Haas and Lori True delivered Saturday, March 17, during a workshop for singers and musicians at St. Agnes Church.
The new leadership team for the Holy Cross Sisters are (from left) Srs. Mary Anne Rose, Kathy Lange, Pat Cormack and John Marie Simien. Courtesy photo
MERRILL, Wis. — The Sisters of Mercy of the Holy Cross have a new leadership team that will take office on Sunday, June 17.
The team, identified through a congregational discernment process and confirmed in elections on Sunday, April 1, includes Sr. Pat Cormack as provincial and Srs. Mary Anne Rose, John Marie Simien and Kathy Lange as councilors. (more…)
This is one in a series of Lenten reflections.
By Katy Kreitzburg
Special to The Catholic Weekly
“Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” These words that we hear on Ash Wednesday always shake me out of my denial that the Christmas season really is over.
Likewise, they bring me to the sudden realization that Ordinary Time flew right past me while I was busy pining for Christmas. Finally, they make me feel a little guilty because, once again, I don’t have a very good game plan for Lent. But, in a roundabout way, they also remind me of one of my favorite Lenten devotions: the Stations of the Cross. (more…)
This is one in a series of Lenten reflections.
By Karmen Butterer Saran
Special to The Catholic Times
Each year as Lent approaches I look forward to it. I imagine life slowing down a bit so I can focus on this dramatic time in the liturgical year.
I pick up a Lenten reflection booklet on Ash Wednesday and start my 40-day journey to Easter with the best of intentions. This year, I tell myself, I will make the time to reflect each day. I will pray more, give more, and sacrifice more. This year, I think, I will somehow wedge in a daylong silent retreat. This year, I tell myself, the jangle of life will not be a distraction and my heart will be prepared for Easter. (more…)
This is one in a series of Lenten reflections.
By Fr. Robert Byrne
Special to The Catholic Weekly
One of the most powerful moments in the liturgy on Good Friday is the showing of the Holy Cross and the repeated chant, “Behold the wood of the cross, on which hung the salvation of the world.” Everyone in the assembly is then invited to come forward and reverence the simple wooden cross, a kind of “sacrament” of the cross on which Jesus Christ died for our salvation. I am always moved by this humble expression of our belief in God’s great love for us.
Hopefully, the Good Friday liturgy is not the only time during the year that Christians remember and honor the cross and meditate on its profound meaning.